Mazda Hacking Code Now Available to Anyone

According to a popular car-enthusiast Web site, it’s no secret that you can hack the infotainment system of 2014 and newer Mazdas.

Now, says Jalopnik, anyone can find the needed software on GitHub.

The site also says that anyone who has the software and a USB drive can use the security flaw to actually customize their car.

Researcher Details the Hack

A security researcher spilled all the techy details to computer Web site Bleeping Computer and Jalopnik picked up the rest.

The hack works the second the USB is interested into the car, but the good news for anyone who is alarmed is that the hack only works via USB insertion. So there is no concern about long-range hacking here, as you’d need access to the car for this to work.

It also only works on the infotainment system, at least thus far. So no one is going to hack your car and take control from a distance, or insert a USB and steal it (the security researcher does suggest that the latter problem, or maybe both, could someday be possible due to flaws in Mazda’s system).

Missed Opportunity?

Mazda has issued a firmware fix, but Jalopnik points out that this is a missed opportunity for the company – perhaps it could’ve offered much more customization than is available in most cars.

Maybe so, maybe not – we’re just glad that the issue is fixable and that the security flaw doesn’t run deeper.